The conference, which is being held in Quebec and Toronto, Canada, from today until 9 September, will bring together

more than 500 delegates from Commonwealth parliaments and legislatures.

The conference will be opened by the Canadian Governor General Adrienne Clarkson at a ceremony in Quebec City.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon will address delegates on current Commonwealth issues and answer questions on Commonwealth

policy. Senior Commonwealth Secretariat officials will be among representatives of international agencies who will discuss taxation and development issues with

parliamentarians from the Commonwealth’s smallest juris-dictions – the nations, states, provinces and territories with populations of 400,000 people or less.

Delegates from more than 30 such jurisdictions, including Malta, will attend the two-day Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference for Members from Small Countries in Quebec City at the beginning of the conference period.

Mr Galea will be chairing the official opening of the Small Countries Conference, which will be addressed by CPA President Peter Milliken. The executive committee members, together with CPA secretary-general Dennis Marshall, will at the time be meeting in Ottawa and will also be making interventions with the help of video conferencing.

Mr Marshall will update parliamentarians at the main conference on the association’s work in promoting the development of democratic institutions and in assisting members to function more effectively in their parliaments and in

the global community.

Among the topics on the agenda are:

• Commonwealth standards for democratic legislatures and the Commonwealth

• Principles on the accountability of and relationship between the three branches of government;

• An integrated strategy to combat racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;

• Successful strategies in the prevention, management and treatment of the AIDS pandemic;

• Parliament and civil society working together for poverty reduction;

• Parliament and the right to know;

• Protecting public health in the global village.